An Heir And In The Same Breath Regret
by FeathersMcStrange
Summary: (AU backstory warnings at the beginning of every chap) One day, Kevin Ryan goes for lunch. Nobody knows where he's gone or why, but when he returns, something is different. Nobody, not his friends, not his partner, not even his wife knows what's going on. Then a murder comes across their desks, and they're thrown into a past nobody knew about, one that should have been left alone.
1. Chapter 1

(Cross posted to AO3, canon pairings only, a healthy dose of awesome friendships and general team shenanigans.)

(Also Jenny and Javier are friends and get along fabulously because why not.)

Because exactly what I needed in my life was another multichapter fanfic. Ah well. I digress. This fic is set between episode ten and episode eleven of season six. Within these words you will find no spoilers for episode eleven (Under Fire) save that it was one of the best episodes of anything I have ever seen in my life which is saying a lot given the copious amounts of television I watch.

Anyhow.

Please do leave a review and tell me what you think!

* * *

god grew lonely

in the days before light

so he made himself **an heir**

**and in the same breath**

invented **regret**.

- tumblr user screwballdame

* * *

Chapter One

When it happened, the change was immediate and obvious. Kevin Ryan had always been a quiet man, but after returning from lunch one day he shut down, hardly speaking a word that wasn't prompted of him. Even for him that was unusual, and after failing to rise to several comments from Javier, his co-workers became concerned. In theory it had been just another Tuesday on which they were just catching up on paperwork, and Kevin had left early, presumably to have lunch with Jenny. They did that whenever they could (not often, they both had rather busy schedules, though Jenny had cut back a bit on hours since she had entered her third trimester), and no one saw anything odd about it.

The oddness began when he returned. Kevin walked into the station stiff backed and tight lipped, the strangest expression they had ever seen him wear on his paler-than-usual face. He looked for all the world as if he had just seen a ghost, and not one he was particularly keen on encountering again. Brushing off various inquiries by Javier, Kate, and Rick, he had sat down at his desk and opened one of the files stacked there, methodically filling in answers and checking boxes. All evidence suggested he hadn't gone to seen Jenny, and when asking him only resulted in his posture going even straighter than it already had been and a clipped 'nowhere important', they decided to leave it be. Javier hadn't been happy with leaving it at that but Kate, who had always had the best grasp of 'tact' of the four of them, had told him to drop it. 'If what's going on is really important, he'll tell you eventually. If it's dangerous and for whatever reason he won't talk to us, you can bet Jenny will call you,' she had said, and it made sense, so Javier had backed off.

Later, he would wish he hadn't.

But none of them knew that yet, so they merely carried on with life as usual, moving through stacks of paperwork and puzzling out a fresh case. About three days after the sudden shift in Kevin's behavior, Javier got the call Kate had predicted.

Jenny sounded worried on the other end, the concern thick enough that even through the slight distortion of a phone line, Javier could tell something was up. The phone rang at his desk while Kevin was momentarily elsewhere, but just in case he took it into the break room, answering it just before it could ring out.

"Hey, Jenny. Is something wrong? Do I need to go get Kevin?"

It wasn't like it was his fault if Kevin's increasing nerves over her approaching due date had gotten to him a bit. Besides, what with the strange way things had been the last few days, god only knew what it could be about.

"Actually, it's about Kevin." Her tone was troubled, and Javier frowned, looking out the window of the break room to see Kevin walk back and sit down at his desk. A million different scenarios ran through his head, most of them ending very badly for his friend. Before he could let his imagination get the better of him, Javier shook himself and refocused on the phone call.

"What's up? Is he okay?"

"That's sort of why I'm calling. I'm worried about him, Javi," Jenny confessed. "He's been acting funny. I know you've got to have noticed it, right? But whatever it is, he won't talk to me about it. I tried to get him to the day it started and he all but begged me not to ask. Has he said anything to you?"

"No, he hasn't," Javier said, shooting another glance out the window to be sure nobody was coming in. He didn't like discussing his best friend with his wife behind the man's back, but Jenny was a friend too now, and she sounded really worried. And if he hadn't been equally as worried before, he was now. "He went out somewhere to lunch a couple'a days ago and he's been kinda strange ever since."

"Oh. Oh, okay." She seemed to be regrouping, having held out with the hope that maybe Kevin had mentioned something to Javier that he hadn't said to her. "I just wish he would _talk_ to me. I wish I knew what was going on."

There wasn't much the detective could think to do but repeat Kate's assurances of three days ago, putting as much confidence in the words as he could muster. Certainly more than he had felt when they'd been said them to him.

"I'm sure that if something's really wrong he would have told you. 'Sides, you know Kevin. He'll fess up when he's ready."

Jenny seemed to be at least partially satisfied by this answer. "Alright. Just... Keep an eye on him, please?"

"You know I will. Bye Jenny."

"Bye Javi. Thanks."

Hanging up the phone, Javier walked slowly back out of the break room towards his desk, trying to process what Jenny had said to him. Whatever it was he wasn't even talking to _her_ about it, which made the whole thing a lot more serious than he had initially thought. Something was going on with Kevin and he wouldn't tell anyone about it, which meant that, for the time being at least, all Javier could do about the situation was do as Jenny asked and keep an eye on him.

When he sat back down, Kevin didn't ask where he had been. One more hint in the middle of a hundred others that his mind wasn't all the way there at the moment. Kevin _always_ asked where he'd been, where anyone'd been. No matter how long they were gone, if he didn't know what was up, Kevin asked. Not this time. This time he stared at his desk, at the form he had finished filling out five minutes ago.

Kate returned with Rick a few moments later and though he couldn't possibly have forgotten about it, his conversation with Jenny was all but shoved to the back of his mind. The situation was put on a back burner for another few days, until almost exactly a week after Kevin's mystery lunch. The case sounded normal, a body found in an alley. However when Kate and Rick got to the scene, they found out pretty quickly that it was going to be anything but.

…

The afternoon was crisp and quiet, or as quiet as it ever got in New York City, in the middle of January. Kate Beckett pulled her coat collar up and sipped her coffee.

"I'm just saying," Rick said persuasively, moving along in a sort of sideways shuffle so he could look at her and not trip at the same time.

"I am not getting married on a boat. I don't even _like_ boats."

"Come on, everybody loves boats! Think about it. Twinkling lights. Lapping waves. Bioluminescent phytoplankton."

"Bioluminescent _what_?"

Rick was stopped before he could continue by Lanie, who got up and walked around to stand between the two of them and the body, blocking their view.

"What can you tell me?" Kate asked her friend, a little put off by Lanie shielding them from the body.

"White male, I'd say mid to late twenties. No ID, so I'm not entirely sure." As Kate and Rick made to move around her and inspect the body, Lanie quickly stepped to the side, keeping herself in front of them. "Before you see him, you should probably prepare yourselves. It's a little. Well, I'll just let you see for yourselves."

When she finally moved out of the way, they saw instantly why she had been reluctant to let them see the dead man without some form of warning.

His skin was pale and his hair was a dark, rich brown. Astonishingly blue eyes stared sightlessly up at the sky, and the shape of his face was far, far too familiar to be comfortable. In short, he looked like a vaguely altered, younger version of Kevin Ryan.

"He..." Rick trailed off, staring at the dead man, thoroughly weirded out by the whole situation. "He looks...

"Just like Ryan," Kate finished for him. It was getting increasingly more uncomfortable for both of them, just standing there staring at the face that reminded them so much of the friend who had been behaving so oddly as of late, and so they turned to Lanie, who was back to crouching beside their latest victim's right hip.

"Do you have cause of death?" asked Kate in an attempt to divert back to the case at hand, rather than the matter of the eerie resemblance.

"Stabbed twice in the abdomen, then shot once in the chest. Neither of the stab wounds would'a killed him though, at least not right away. Hurt like hell, but if he tried to run he probably could have still gotten at least a little ways. The gunshot's what finished him off."

Just then, footfalls heralded the approach of Kevin and Javier. Despite the fact that he was still acting funny, he seemed to have gotten himself together, at least a little bit, and was even smiling at a comment of Javier's. Kate and Rick turned instantly to look at them, shuffling so that they stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking the unknown dead man from the other two detectives' view.

"Morning Esposito, Ryan," Rick said, faux-casually. They caught on instantly, both immediately trying to see around their friends.

"You might want to-" Kate was cut off as she was sidestepped, unable to stop or warn them before they saw the body. Too late, they had already seen him.

Kate, Rick, and Lanie were all silent as they watched Javier and Kevin's faces change. Javier looked equal parts shocked and horrified, shooting a look from the victim to his partner then back to the victim again. The resemblance was undeniable, from the shapes of their noses to the color of their eyes. And then there was Kevin.

The man stood stock still, frozen where he'd halted upon seeing the cold, slack face. His eyes were wide and he looked for all the world as if a ghost he'd thought long dead had swooped down and alit on the ground before him.

"Like I was telling Beckett and Castle," Lanie said slowly, keeping a careful eye on the two new arrivals, waiting to see if she should stop and give them a moment. "I couldn't find any ID, so for now he's a John Doe."

"There's, ah," Kevin started, stopping abruptly and swallowing hard. He shifted for a moment, folding his arms, never looking away from the dead man's face. The face that was so eerily like a younger version of his own, like staring into a mirror, or a window years in the past. "There's no need. I, um, I know who he is. His name is Connor. Connor Ryan. He's, ah. He's my brother."

Silence.


	2. Chapter 2

For me that was shockingly fast posting. I am so so sorry to any followers here who might be expecting an update from my Suits fic, Crossfire, but I swear to you that's going to be rebooted and updated this week. Swear on whatever you want. Swear on midseason hiatus.

Anyhow, I'll be trying to get back to you guys' lovely reviews! I adore each and every one of them and they both brighten my day and help kick my ass into gear with writing this thing.

Here is where we see the AU backstory bit rear it's head.

So. Enjoy, and don't forget to leave me a review! (Also feel free to bug me about updating this on my tumblr. My url is frostlawyer, come be friends! We can talk fics and Castle episodes. :D)

* * *

god grew lonely

in the days before light

so he made himself **an heir**

**and in the same breath**

invented **regret**.

- tumblr user screwballdame

* * *

The ride back to the station was awkward. Kevin said nothing. Javier also said nothing, though several times he opened his mouth as if he was about to then seemingly thought better of it, settling for glancing over at his partner every so often, trying to read his expression. He wanted to get a fix on Kevin's current mental state, where he was at with the whole situation. From the moment it had come to light that the man lying on the cold, rain-damn pavement was his brother, Kevin had shut down. He went still, silent. It was a throw back to the day things had changed so abruptly, only this time it was ten times worse.

They had left the scene early at Javier's suggestion. He had seen the way his best friend had reacted to his brother's body. It wasn't the usual reaction, though. There were no tears. That of itself was surprising to Javier, because although he boasted of being the tougher of the two of them, even he would likely have broken down at least a little upon arriving at the scene of a murdered immediate family member. Coupled with the fact that this was his more sensitive, emotional partner in question, that sent up red flags. No, Kevin didn't seem upset. At least not grieving upset. He seemed... almost _afraid_.

And that was a thought that didn't sit well with Javier at all. Not a lot of things frightened either of them. Whatever was happening here, whatever had spooked Kevin in the first place, it was connected to his family, if his response to seeing Connor's body was any indication.

Upon arriving back at the 12th, Gates called out for Kevin, motioning for him to come into her office. Receiving a nod from her, Javier followed. Closing the office door after him, he stood beside his friend, keeping quiet. He figured he knew what Gates wanted to talk to Kevin about, and wanted to be there for moral support.

"Detective Ryan, I've received word that yourself, Detectives Esposito and Beckett, and Mr. Castle are investigating the murder of your brother, is that correct?"

"Yes, it is," Kevin said with that same unreadable expression on his face. Gates's normally stern demeanor softened and she gave her subordinate a sympathetic look.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Kevin looked as if he were about to say something but thought better of it.

"Thank you."

"Unfortunately, due to the conflict of interest, I'm going to have to ask you to step down from this case. I can't have one of my people investigating the death of a family member, it could put the case at risk. You understand? I trust this won't be a problem?" She looked at him expectantly, waiting for an answer.

"No, sir," was his quiet reply. "In fact, I was going to come straight to your office and step down myself."

"Good. I wouldn't want anything to risk this killer being brought to justice and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I will, however, permit you to hang around the station, out of the way, so long as you promise not to directly involve yourself, especially not with any suspects or evidence. Do I make myself clear, detective?"

"Yes, sir." Kevin looked halfway between apprehensive and relieved, all the while maintaining that funny look he'd worn since they had first seen Connor Ryan's body. "Is that all?"

"Yes. If you need to talk to someone, the department has a grief counselor. You'll find her if you need to?"

After Kevin agreed to seek out the grief counselor should the need arise, he swiftly exited the Captain's office. Javier hung back for a moment at a look from Gates.

"You'll keep an eye on him, won't you? He can't run rogue on this."

"Won't be a problem," Javier assured. With a nod from Gates, he left, just in time to spot Kevin disappearing inside the break room, presumably to make coffee. It wasn't too long before Kate and Rick returned from the scene, both of them immediately heading straight for where Javier stood, keeping one eye on his partner as he began to put together the murder board.

"Hey, where's Ryan?" Kate asked him as soon as she was close enough that she didn't have to shout to be heard. Gesturing absently towards the break room where Kevin was standing at the espresso machine, making himself a cup of coffee, Javier didn't look away from the photo he was pinning up, from the Connor Ryan crime scene, writing the man's name beneath the picture.

"Is he doing alright? I mean, did he seem very upset?"

At that question Javier capped the marker and put it down, turning to face his friends.

"No. No, he's not alright. Would you be?"

Sensing that now was a good time to intervene, before nerves and temper got the better of either of them, Kate pulled out her cell phone, stepping away. "I'm going to go notify the rest of his family, call them down for an ID." They had found numbers for a mother, father, and sister on his phone, and Kate had found it slightly offputting that in all the literally dozens of contacts that he had programmed into his mobile, not one number was his brother's.

When he next turned to look at the man, Javier spotted Rick, staring straight past him at the photo of Connor Ryan with a strange expression on his face.

"What is it?" the detective asked, folding his arms and looking at the at the moment nearly bare board.

"That face. I know him from somewhere I just can't pinpoint where."

Javier shrugged. "I mean he does sorta look freakily like Ryan."

"No, not that. It's the name too. Connor Ryan." Rick stared at the picture, forehead furrowed, for several long moments before his eyebrows shot up. "Oh my god. Connor Ryan. He's Connor Ryan."

"Yeah. We've established that." Having no idea where Rick was going with this and already being on edge, Javier didn't have any time for the writer's usual goofing off.

Except this time, Rick wasn't playing around.

"No, he's _Connor Ryan._ Of _the_ Ryans." When he saw that Javier still wasn't following, Rick shook his head, turning to look back at the picture again. "I mean I've only seen him once or twice at parties, but I can't believe I didn't recognize him, this guy and his family are famous."

"We're talking about the same Connor here, right? Same Connor that's my partner's brother? Cause I'm pretty sure Ryan ain't famous. I think I'd have noticed that."

"Yeah, that's the part I'm having trouble with. These people, they run a Forbes 500 company, it's an _empire_. How could we have not known he was one of them?" Normally, this kind of a puzzle would delight and tantalize Rick. Not now, though. Not when it involved one of his friends. Javier was quiet for several moments, as Kate came back over, Rick catching her up on the dots he had connected. When she asked if he had known anything about his, Javier took a deep breath, looking over at Kevin, sitting in the break room staring at the coffee mug in his hands.

"I had no idea. I've never met any of his family members. Neither has Jenny. He doesn't talk about them. I didn't even know he had a brother."

They must not have been that far from the station, because it wasn't that long after that the three of them got their first look at the Ryans. From the moment they walked out of the elevator, Javier, Rick, and Kate knew exactly who they were.

Brady Ryan, the family patriarch, looked, much as his dead son had, eerily similar to Kevin. Except where Kevin's eyes were reminiscent of a calm, clear sky (or, as a slightly tipsy Jenny had once described them, 'the bluest blue to ever blue'), Brady's eyes were ice, cold and hard, unforgiving. He moved with a steady, even stride, shoulders back and head held high. Every inch of him radiated power, and his face looked... cruel.

Next to him walked his wife, Quinlan, CFO of their company, Ryan Global Inc., and it was from her that Kevin had presumably gotten his height. Next to Brady she seemed tiny, but no less intimidating. Something about Quinlan Ryan set Javier on edge. He had sensed Kevin snapping up from his desk to stand behind him, stiffening as his family came into view, and now he saw where he got that posture from. His mother too had a face with a cruel edge, eyes as frigid as his father's, her back straight as an arrow. However if they had looked mean, they were nothing when compared to his sister.

If Rick Castle were asked to describe a siren, the type of mythical monster that lured sailors to their deaths with deceiving looks and a hypnotizing song, Keelan Ryan was the woman he would have gone with. She was tall and beautiful, but it was a dangerous sort of beauty, her mouth set in a savage sort of grimace. As soon as she spotted the group of detectives (plus writer), her eyes locked in on Kevin, and she made straight for him. Javier looked behind him at Kevin's stricken expression and suddenly wished that he had the ability to get his best friend far away from these people, because with that kind of a look on her face, Keelan and the other two Ryans had come with anything but good intentions.

"So the wayward son finally turns up, after all this time," Keelan said, stopping in front of her brother and crossing her arms, bracelets clinking against the cufflinks clipped to her jacket sleeves. She had a good four or five inches on Kevin already, and coupled with the heels she practically towered over him. "And not dead in a ditch, like I expected to find you." Kevin flinched at her harsh, mocking words and breathed in a heavy sigh, face resigned.

"Hello, Keelan."

"Kevin. It's been a while."

The Irish detective snorted softly and nodded. "Yeah. Sure has. What, fifteen years?"

"Alright, enough," snapped Brady Ryan, stepping in. "What the hell is going on here, Kevin?"

With every passing moment, Javier disliked his partner's family more and more. From the way they were both staring in shock and disgust, Rick and Kate shared his sentiment.

"Connor's dead, dad. I thought Detective Beckett told you that."

"Well?" the large, loud man demanded, stepping into Kevin's space. "What happened?"

"We don't know yet," Kevin replied quietly. "That's what the investigation is for. Detective Beckett called you here to-"

"What do you _mean_, you don't _know_. I thought that's why you went to that godawful community college to get that useless two year degree, so that you could _solve _things like this. Isn't that your job," Brady paused, looking at the plaque on Kevin's desk, "_Detective Ryan_?"

"I'm not even on the case."

Sensing that this wasn't going to go a good place if Brady was allowed to get even angrier, Kate stepped in.

"Mr. Ryan. I know this must be hard for you, but we did call you here to identify your son's body. If you and your wife and your daughter would please accompany myself and Mr. Castle, we can get this going," she said as politely as she could muster, given how the man had spoken to Kevin. She wanted to kick him right out of the precinct, but something told her that this course of action a) wouldn't work, if she knew people like Brady, and b) would only cause bigger problems for all of them in the long run. So instead, she grabbed Rick's arm and pulled him towards autopsy, gesturing for the Ryans to follow her. They did, Keelan shooting one last look over her shoulder at her brother.

As soon as they were out of sight Kevin deflated, dropping down into his chair and breathing deeply. Javier rounded on him, bewildered and rather metaphorically floored after the scene he had just witnessed.

"Kevin, what the _hell_ was that? Who _are_ those people?"

Scrubbing a hand over his face, suddenly feeling as if he hadn't slept in weeks, Kevin looked up at him. "Those people are my mother, my father, and my sister. God," he said shakily, dropping his elbows to his knees. "It's just like I remember it."

"They were _always_ like this?" Javier must have sounded shocked, because Kevin gave a dry chuckle and shook his head.

"That, Javi, that was nothing. Par for the course with Keelan and dad. You should see them on a bad day, it's... Ffff." Air whooshed past his lips in an exhausted gust and Kevin's head fell into his hands. "Please, can we just not talk about this right now?" Seeing that he was about three inches from snapping under everything that was going on, Javier backed off. He redirected his attention back to the board, and putting together everything he could with the information at hand. Hopefully Lanie's autopsy would give them more to go off of.

As if on cue, his phone went off. It was Lanie, telling him he better get down to autopsy right away because 'this is something you should hear in person'. He turned to Kevin, apprehensive about leaving the man alone when Brady, Quinlan, and Keelan were surely not too long from coming back from the morgue. Kevin glanced his way and saw this, waving a hand absently.

"Go. Deal with the case. I'll deal with my family. I've done it before, I can handle twenty more minutes with them."

Javier gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile and headed off. He passed the Ryans on the way, and it was only the current circumstances that prevented him from going off on them then and there about what happened to people who screwed with people he cared about.

When he reached autopsy, Lanie, Kate, and Rick were waiting for him with identical grim expressions. Apprehension seized him and he walked into the room slowly, almost not wanting to hear whatever it was Lanie had to tell him.

"We got a match to the prints from the knife in the storm drain," the coroner said, sending a look to the computer in front of her.

"Yeah? And?" With every passing second his nerves increased. "That was fast."

"I know. That's cause the prints were right here in our system, it only took a minute or two to match them up."

"Cut the crap, Lanie, whose are they?"

"The prints from the knife pinged a set from our police database, Javier. They're a match for Detective Kevin Ryan."


	3. Chapter 3

So remember when I was like 'wow I am really updating this fast aND I'M GONNA FINISH REBOOTING CROSSFIRE AND UPDATE THAT HELL YEAH'.

...

Well you can see how well that went.

I really don't have an excuse? Except that it just kept not happening and also holy finals batman that was not a fun experience. THE IMPORTANT PART is that I finally kicked my own ass into gear and did the thing whoop. Also this chapter is HELLA long oops.

Ever had that thing happen where you're like 'okay let's write the fic oh hi there headcanon what are you doing here. wait. wait no. i didn't give you permission to be in this fic. stop it. cease immediately. no. go away.'? Well that's sort of what happened here. I have like this massive headcanon of Javier as aromantic (for those of you who don't know, there's a lovely FAQ on aromanticaardvark dot tumblr dot com slash FAQ, run and check that out, you'll find yourself a more educated person for having done it). And so it would seem that in context of this fic, Javier is aro. I do not have a problem with this in the slightest. Sorry if you do. (not really. aro!javi fics for the win)

Behold the Ryan family being a bunch of Truly Terrible PeopleTM and I hope you enjoy this chapter in which I am a horrible person, there is a bunch of unrealistic police work, and Javier and Jenny are friends because why the hell not.

Please do leave me a review! They make me feel very happy and also go a long way to guilting me into updating the damn thing haha oops.

(remember to come say hi to me on tumblr, i'm **frostlawyer**! talk castle and fics with me! this author's note is so long i am so sorry)

* * *

god grew lonely

in the days before light

so he made himself **an heir**

**and in the same breath**

invented **regret**.

- tumblr user screwballdame

* * *

It was like he had stepped into some messed up, backwards parallel universe.

"No, that can't be right," Javier said vehemently, shaking his head. "It has to be some kind of mistake. His prints can't be on the weapon."

"Yet here they are," Lanie replied, sounding as unhappy with the situation as he did.

"Kevin _didn't_ kill him."

"And nobody's saying he did," interrupted Kate in a placating voice. "We just need to talk to him. Figure out a reason why his prints were on that knife. I'm sure there's some sort of explanation that doesn't involve him killing his brother. There was a second set of prints on the knife as well, we're running those now."

While they waited, Lanie led the three of them over to the body on her table, ready to deliver the information she couldn't tell them while Brady, Quinlan, and Keelan had been standing right there. It was just as she had predicted at the scene: the two stab wounds wouldn't have necessarily been fatal if he had reached a hospital and gotten treatment fast enough. The gunshot wound to his chest had ended any chance of that, though, and he was dead almost instantly. Kind of odd, to both stab and shoot someone. It spoke to an impatient killer, one who had planned on using the knife and then found it to be too time consuming, foregoing it for the noisier method of shooting him. Estimated time of death was somewhere between eight and eleven the evening before the body was found. Construction going on very near the alley could easily have masked gunshots, and since it wasn't a residential area and they were on a rush to finish the job the work had gone on until midnight.

Lanie had just finished going over her preliminary report (she would know more once she had time to actually perform the autopsy) when the computer made a noise, telling her there was a match for their second set of fingerprints. Her expression foreshadowed anything but good news when she looked at the screen.

"What?" asked Javier, alarm heightening. "Who is it, Lanie?"

"It's... Uh," she hedged, looking more confused than anything. "Jenny."

"_Jenny_?" Rick sounded like he didn't believe her. Judging from their expressions, Javier and Kate didn't believe her either. She grabbed the screen and turned it towards the others. On it was displayed Jenny Ryan's smiling face, with her prints shown beside it.

A couple of weeks previously, Kevin had brought Jenny into the station to give her a sort of tour. She had hung out for a bit at his desk, and then they walked around with Javier, introducing her to the officers. They had shown her around, and finally scanned her fingerprints to show her how it worked. Jenny had been delighted. Working as a pediatric nurse North Mercy General Hospital, she had never had a chance to get an inside look at a police station before. And now, as a byproduct of that, her prints were in their system.

Apparently, they were also on one of their weapons.

"So wait, you're saying that both Kevin and Jenny handled this knife? And then it was used in his brother's murder?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Lanie said, then sighed. She didn't like what this was doing to anyone involved. As far as she was concerned, life had been fine right up until Connor Ryan had crossed her table, and then it had all gone to shit. Her most recent breakup with Javier (and last breakup, due to a talk they'd had regarding the topic of the complicated world of him and dating, specifically the fact that he didn't particularly feel like it was something he needed or wanted to do, but that was a train of thought for another time) had ended amicably, and things around the station were running swimmingly. Kevin and Jenny were having a baby, Rick and Kate were engaged, and Javier (since stopping trying to make himself date) had been the happiest he'd been since she'd known him. She wasn't doing too bad herself, if the nice (and attractive) evidence clerk she was seeing was any indication.

The point was, for once in their lives, everything was going the way it should be. And then Connor Ryan had been murdered, and everything had been tossed on it's head, with a close friend right in the middle of it all. As she watched Javier, Kate, and Rick walk back out towards where they would have to break the news to Kevin, Lanie shook her head, glancing down at Connor. No, it hadn't started with him. Whatever was happening here had begun a week ago, with a mysterious lunch.

"What did you do to him?" she asked the dead man absently. She didn't expect a response.

…

When they reached the room in which the Ryans and a significantly harassed looking Kevin were waiting for them, Kate paused outside and turned to the other two, a serious expression on her face.

"Look, when we tell Ryan about this, I don't think it's a good idea to do it near them."

"Oh definitely," Rick agreed immediately. "We're not trying to get him killed here." He coughed, abashed, when he noticed the 'do you really think now is the time' look Javier was directing at him. "Sorry. Anyway, it's a good idea. We send them home and talk to him alone."

"I mean it also just might be a good idea to get them away from him for his sake," Javier said with no small amount of distrust aimed towards his partner's family. "I know Ryan. Just look at him, that's not the Ryan I know. This isn't good for him. Whatever went down here, it was bad."

With that in mind, they headed towards what remained of the Ryan family. There had been truth in Javier's words. It was evident in the way Kevin stood, listening to whatever his father was borderline shouting at him. The posture that had been drummed into him since he could walk was perfectly intact, shoulders back and spine straight, but everything else about the way he stood there screamed unease and a desire to flee. The sooner they intervened here, the better.

"...and if you think that _excuses_ what you-"

"Pardon me," Javier said in a tone that was as icy as the furious man's eyes. He stepped around Brady, noting his aggressive, intimidating stance, and made a point of casually positioning himself so that Kevin was shielded behind his shoulder. "There's nothing else we can tell you at this point. I think it would be best for all of us if you and your family just left."

At that point Brady's anger was redirected from his surviving son to Javier, who stared right back at him, daring him to make some sort of challenge. Whatever was up with Kevin which was apparently preventing him from being able to stand up for himself, Javier didn't have the same problem. Brady could try and push him around all he wanted, but there was no ancient family history hanging over them, no childhood forcing his eyes to the floor and his mouth to stay tight shut.

"I won't be going anywhere, Mr..."

"Esposito. And it's _Detective_. I'm Detective Javier Esposito, your son's partner."

"My son is _dead_, Detective," Brady spat, squaring his shoulders and emphasizing the several inches he had on Javier. "And until you find out who murdered him, I am not going anywhere."

Sending a look from Kevin, still standing silent and stiff behind him, to Kate and Rick, hanging back by the door and letting him handle the situation, Javier shook his head shortly. "No I _really_ think you should leave."

"I have a right to know what happened to him."

Before it could escalate any further, Rick stepped in. "Look, Mr. Ryan, I know this must be a very difficult time for you. But you've been here for a while, there's nothing more we can tell you at this time, and I'm sure your wife and daughter don't want to be standing around in a police station right now. Let's go down to this little coffee shop nearby, I know the people who run it. Give you folks a break and give the detectives time to work."

From the look he sent them once Brady, Quinlan, and Keelan were leaving the room, Javier, Kate, and Kevin could tell that he was just playing nice with them, the act covering up the fact that he was as disgusted with these people as the others were. As soon as the door closed behind him, Kate and Javier turned to face Kevin. The man's blue eyes were downcast and his hands, clenched into fists, displayed the occasional tremor.

"I _hate_ this," Kevin burst out after a few seconds, knocking a chair across the room. He was breathing hard, face flushed. "I _hate_ every single _one_ of them." Neither of them had ever seen him this upset before.

Kevin Ryan was a quiet, gentle sort of person. He liked to play video games with his best friend, and watch movies, and have long talks with his wife. And he never, _ever _held a grudge. Getting in a fight with Kevin was like getting in a fight with a golden retriever. He'd be mad at you for roughly three minutes and then an hour later would have to be reminded that an argument had even taken place.

Now here he was, faced with something he thought he had gotten away from for good, and he was _angry_. At Connor (however irrationally) for being killed, at whoever had killed him for starting the whole ball rolling, at his family for suddenly showing up in his life after fifteen years... at himself, for freezing in the face of Brady's fury.

"God _damn it_." His voice was muffled, having sat down and dropped his head into his hands. This whole thing was spinning wildly out of control. "Why is this _happening_..."

Javier exchanged a worried look with Kate, then walked over to where Kevin was sitting cautiously, almost positive what he was about to ask would make the situation worse, but finding the question unavoidable. He leaned back, bracing his hands against the table behind him, considering how best to approach this.

"Hey, you doin alright?" The tired look he got from Kevin was enough of an answer. "Right. Anyway, bro, I really hate to have to ask this, but where were you yesterday, between eight and eleven?"

Kevin's head jerked up and he looked at Javier, shocked. "Me? Javi, you think _I_ did this?"

"Of course I don't," Javier backpedaled. "But Kevin, we... We found your prints on the knife." Kate put the evidence bag she had brought up from autopsy (kept carefully out of sight of the Ryans) on the table.

"Lanie ran the prints from the knife," she said. "We found yours, and Jenny's. Nobody here actually thinks you would kill someone, okay?" Kate waited for him to look at her before going on, wanting him to see the sincerity in her face. "We don't think you did it. We just need to ask, because when we do find the real killer, that is the first thing the defense attorney is gonna go for. Why were your prints on the knife?"

After a few moments of silence, looking from Kate to Javier and then back down at his own hands, Kevin spoke in a weary voice. "There's, uh, there's a knife missing from our kitchen set. Jenny's aunt got it for us for a wedding present. I don't know what happened to it. Could be that one. And, I... I don't have an alibi."

Taken aback, Javier frowned at him. "What?"

"I was out. On a bridge by the river. I go there to think sometimes. I must've been there for... God, for hours. Nobody was with me. Nobody saw me there. I can't prove it."

"Okay," Javier said slowly. "Here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna sit tight here for a bit, while we try and narrow down some real suspects. Okay?" Kevin didn't answer, gaze once again downcast, only looking up when his best friend tapped his shoulder. "Okay?"

"Yeah," he huffed out, shaking his head and standing up. "Yeah, okay."

…

"I'm sorry, I'm not following," Jenny said slowly, sitting down on her couch, looking at Javier in utter confusion. "My husband's brother, a brother I didn't even know _existed_, has been murdered, and you think _he_ did it?" As soon as he could, Javier had left to let her know what was going on, and to check about her prints, on the knife as well as Kevin's.

"Not for a second, Jenny. You know him. I know him." Javier sat down next to her. "We're going to sort this out at the station, and prove it wasn't Kevin. He's gonna be fine."

The blonde woman sighed and shook her head, aware of the implication behind 'he's gonna be fine'. It meant that right now he wasn't.

"Look, Jenny, I..." Javier trailed off, uncomfortable with the way he had to take this conversation. "The knife set. Can I see it?"

"Right, yeah, of course." She stood slowly, one hand on her stomach. They walked into the kitchen together and Jenny pulled out the knife block and showed it to him. "I didn't really worry about the missing one... I thought one of us must have misplaced it, hell I thought _you_ could have misplaced it, in one of you and Kev's misguided attempts to help me make dinner."

"I really hate to have to ask this, but where were you yesterday? Between about eight and eleven? I'm so sorry but I've gotta ask."

Jenny smiled at him faintly. "I understand. I was here, off work, watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. The servers log that stuff, I think? Our account or something? And I called tech support a couple of times." She was silent for a little while before turning to him with a troubled expression. "What are they like? His family."

The man looked at her evenly for a moment before walking back into the living room and dropping onto the couch. Jenny followed him, apprehension rising in her chest.

"I think I get now why nobody's ever met them."

"That bad?" she asked, worry increasing when Javier nodded.

"Worse. The moment they walk in the door the daughter – that's Kev's sister – just tears into him. Said something about him finally turning up, and being surprised he wasn't dead in a ditch somewhere. And his dad... I about hauled off and decked the guy. I definitely wanted to. Couldn't go two minutes without yelling, mostly at Kevin. I got the feeling that the farther away from Kevin we could get him, the better."

"And his mother?" Jenny felt ill. She'd known it wasn't going to be good, considering that none of the Ryans had even been at their _wedding_, but from the way Javier talked about them, her husband's family was worse than she had anticipated. Suddenly, all she wanted was to be at the station with Kevin.

"She didn't really talk much, but she didn't seem upset by how her husband and daughter talked to her son, so. I don't know."

As Javier stood, readying himself to leave and head back to the 12th, Jenny stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"I'm coming with you," she said firmly, leaving no room for argument. "From what you said, it sounds like Kevin needs everyone he can get in his corner right now. And I'm not about to sit home watching Netflix while he's there dealing with this. Alright?" Again, there was no room for any answer but the one he gave. Javier handed her his coat, once again sending a mental thanks to whatever higher power might be listening that his partner had met Jenny. She had become a dear friend in recent years, and knowing Kevin had someone like that around was great. The two of them deserved each other.

"Let's see if we can get there before they get back from coffee."

…

At the station, Kate Beckett was working on setting up the board that Javier had started. She had their timeline – or what they knew of it so far – mapped out, and what details of Connor Ryan's life she had managed to glean from reading news reports on him.

Connor was set up to inherit the Ryan family empire upon the retirement or death of his parents. The company, Ryan Global Inc., was a very well known, influential, wealthy mobile phone software company. She didn't really understand the business side of it, but it looked like he stood to gain a lot by taking over the company. He was young, good looking, and rich. It seemed like he had everything going for him. The only thing that really stood out was a few small articles on public squabbles he'd had with his fiancee, a woman named Riley Macke, an heiress.

Macke's photo went up on the board immediately after Kate found and printed it. A fiancee Connor had been fighting with made a much better explanation than Kevin, who apparently hadn't even seen his family in fifteen years. At least it did to her. Whatever had happened with Kevin and his family, there wasn't a thing aside from irrefutable hard proof that could convince her he was a killer. She had just finished writing and was capping the dry erase marker when Captain Gates walked over.

"How's the case coming?" the woman asked, shooting a look over at Kevin, pacing in the break room.

"Sir we... We found something you should probably know about," Kate said as Rick rejoined her.

"I left the Ryans at the coffee shop, they'll be here in a bit," he muttered to her under his breath before straightening and standing at her side, both of them facing Gates.

"Well? What did you find?"

"Um, Detective Ryan's fingerprints. They're on the knife that was used to stab Connor Ryan." Kate kept a close eye on Gates's face, waiting for a reaction. "Turns out there's one just like it missing from a set at his house."

"And do you think he did it?"

They'd been ready for the question, and yet both jumped on the defensive as soon as it came.

"No. No! Of course not."

"This is Kevin Ryan we're talking about here do you really think he could kill someone in cold blood?"

"Sir he's-"

"Enough, you two," interrupted Gates. "I'm not saying arrest the man. I'm not saying he did it. What I am saying is _prove_ he didn't do it. Keep me updated." As she walked away, Kate and Rick exchanged a look.

"Rick, he doesn't have an alibi."

"I know. But we'll figure it all out. We have to."

Jenny and Javier made it back a few minutes before Brady, Quinlan, and Keelan did. Before she headed to the break room to be with Kevin, Jenny turned to Javier.

"Whatever you have to do, Javi. Just prove he didn't do this."

"I'm gonna. Don't worry about that. I'll take care of the case. You take care of Kevin."

Javier nodded and as she walked away his attention was diverted by the entrance of Brady, Quinlan, and Keelan Ryan. He sighed, a knot of anger already tightening in him. Kate touched his arm to get his attention.

"Why don't you interview Keelan. I don't think it's a good idea to put you in a room with Brady Ryan."

He had to agree with her on that one. Brady and Quinlan were escorted to an interview room by Kate and Rick before either of them had time to spot Kevin and Jenny. Javier turned to the woman left, standing there with her arms folded and the hint of a smirk on her face.

"So, cop boy, are we gonna do this interview thing or what?"

"Right this way."

He got the feeling that this wasn't going to go well at all.


	4. Chapter 4

So... I updated late. Again. Whoops. Sorry guys.

So, here's your new chapter. It's probably not realistic that they'd put up with this BS for as long as they did, but they needed any information they could get for a lead, and it's to show exactly what sort of people Brady, Quinlan, and Keelan are. I'll give you a hint: not the good kind.

Anyway, please do drop me a line if you have any thoughts! You should also come pester me over at tumblr, I'm **frostlawyer**. Bug me for faster updates! It's a pretty lucrative strategy tbh.

Enjoy the new chapter!

* * *

god grew lonely

in the days before light

so he made himself **an heir**

**and in the same breath**

invented **regret**

- tumblr user screwballdame

* * *

The door opened and closed softly, Jenny releasing Kevin from her embrace and turning to face Victoria Gates with her arm around her husband's waist.

"Captain Gates, what is going on here?" she asked, completely thrown by the day's events thus far. If she had thought Kevin was behaving strangely in the previous week that was nothing compared to how he seemed now.

"Don't worry about anything," Victoria replied, trying to sound as reassuring as she could. "We're going to have this whole mess sorted out before you know it." She then turned to Kevin, her expression taking on a sympathetic tone. "Your family is being interviewed by Detectives Beckett, Esposito, and Mr. Castle, Ryan."

Kevin snorted, shaking his head. "That's just... perfect. That's perfect. Exactly what I need, them alone in a room with my family." He looked hesitantly over at his boss, reluctance in his voice. "Do you... Am I being investigated for this?"

"Nobody in this building believes you have done anything wrong." She sounded completely assured of the truth in her words. "Just due process. I'm sure Esposito will keep you updated."

Finding that there wasn't really all that much she could say to either of them, Gates left, sending a concerned look back to the break room where she could see Jenny and Kevin quietly talking. She had never seen anything like this in her precinct before. People storming in and yelling all sorts of horrid things at her detectives... It certainly wasn't the first time one of her people had lost a family member, not even the first time one had been murdered in their jurisdiction. This was the first time, though, that the other members of that family had then shown up and began berating one of them.

As Brady Ryan had been tearing into Kevin, one of the officers had come to get her in her office. Marie Valdez burst in, confusion and worry on her face, and announced that she wasn't sure what was going on, but it sounded like Detective Ryan was being attacked by someone in one of the interview rooms, and she had heard from Alsley who'd heard from Jacobs who'd overheard Beckett talking to Castle that it was Ryan's father doing the attacking. Gates had, of course, immediately run out of her office wondering why the hell, if Ryan was being attacked, wasn't Esposito, Beckett, or Castle doing anything about it. And for that matter, why wasn't anyone doing anything about it. There were at least four or five cops just milling about, looking awkwardly at one another and the interview room, doing absolutely nothing about the situation.

Victoria walked towards the interview room, ready to put herself in between an attacker and one of her people if need be. Ryan could handle himself just fine under normal circumstances, but she wasn't blind, and if the situation had been going on this long and hadn't stopped yet, he might need a hand.

"What are you people just standing around here for?" she demanded, reaching for the door knob. The officers didn't respond, just gave each other uneasy looks. She shook her head, exasperated. Just as she was about to open the door, Victoria was stopped dead in her tracks, by Ryan himself. He saw her standing there and his eyes widened in panic. He shook his head almost imperceptibly, and though while the gesture may have been small the urgency in it was obvious.

Victoria withdrew her hand, giving Ryan a questioning look. He gave a tiny shrug, one that apparently caught the attention of whoever was yelling at him, as he cringed sharply and looked quickly away from her, the angry sounding man's voice increasing abruptly in volume.

The Captain shook her head, decidedly not comfortable with this whole situation. She didn't like not being able to put a stop to this, but for all that she was a hardass, Victoria Gates was passionately loyal and fiercely protective of those she deemed her own, and her respect for Ryan, his privacy, and his ability to handle his own matters warred with her desire to keep one of her people safe. Victoria sighed and caught Ryan's eyes once more, exchanging a look with him.

The man looked flat out exhausted, strained near to the breaking point. She hoped to god that this case would be over quick, and these people would get out of her precinct for good, before they could do any damage.

Or, well... Any more damage.

…

The silence was growing awkward. Rick and Kate stood together by a table, facing Brady and Quinlan Ryan. So far Kate didn't think anyone had heard Quinlan say a word. Brady seemed to be the talker of the two of them, and the topic he'd latched on to was Kevin. The longer his tirade went on, the more Rick and Kate hated him. After a particularly nasty comment, at which Kate decided that she was pretty sure they'd have a new homicide on their hands had Javier been in the room, enough was enough.

"Mr. Ryan," Kate interrupted, her nails digging into her palms as she tried to restrain herself. "Mr Ryan please take a seat."

Brady gave her a bored look. "Defensive, huh? He's got all three of you fooled into thinking he's worth it. Always was good at running a con, that little bastard. I'll give you a little hint here, Detective... What was it?"

"Detective Beckett," she said through gritted teeth. "And I'm going to have to ask you not to speak about-"

"Detective Beckett, he's not worth it. Put your loyalty in somebody who won't screw you over first chance he gets. Tell that loud angry one, Esposito, to waste his time protecting somebody who'll return the favor." In any other situation, Rick would have appreciated the irony of Brady calling Javier loud and angry.

"Mr. Ryan," Kate tried to derail the conversation for the second time, wishing for perhaps the umpteenth time that they could just drop kick Brady out of both the building and their lives. But they did need to talk to him, just this once, in order to gather as much information as possible. If he stormed out now, taking Quinlan and Keelan with him, they would be back where they started with information on their dead boy.

"What do you want?" Brady drawled in a dull tone.

"Your son, Connor," Rick said. He too was seething but his mother was an actress and he'd learnt through being famous and through ages of parent teacher conferences how to act around people he didn't like. "We need you two to tell us everything you can about him, especially if there was something you think might've possibly led to his death. Anything you can tell us, then we can get you folks out of here and on your way."

Quinlan Ryan let out a sniff that she quickly stifled behind one small hand, her shoulders hitching softly. Her husband shot Rick and Kate a vicious glare, wrapping an arm around her.

"Connor was perfect," the distraught woman whimpered, staring off out the window. "He was everything a son should be, nothing like that... He was perfect. Model behavior, always smiled for the press, always said just the right thing. Everything was going exactly to the plan. But now, now that's all over. I don't know what we'll ever possibly do without him. My little boy is gone, my baby is gone..."

Two conflicting views fought inside Rick. The father in him felt sorry for the woman. The pseudo-cop in him, however, wasn't so sure her gratuitous display of grief was anything more than exactly that – a display. Something about Quinlan's wailing was a little too forced, a little too fake. He didn't have any doubt she was upset, sure, what mother wouldn't be upon finding out her twenty five year old son was dead, but she was perhaps overselling it just a tad. It was too much a sharp change from the woman who had impassively looked at the face of a corpse and said 'yes, that's him'. A woman who had strode into a police station with eyes of ice and a face of stone, hadn't said one word to a child she hadn't seen in fifteen years. One look at Kate told Rick she was on the same page.

"Mr. Ryan?" she said, directing the focus of the conversation to Brady.

"What's there to say? My son was a good man, and now he's gone. I can't think of anybody who'd have wanted to hurt him. He did right by everyone. Kevin could have done with..." Brady trailed off, frowning.

"What is it? Have you remembered something?" Kate was glad to take the conversation in any direction that led away from more of what Brady had to say about her friend.

"Kevin."

So much for that.

"We're not here to talk about Kevin. He isn't the topic of this conversation."

"You asked me about my son and I'm telling you. He and Kevin never got along. That boy," Brady spat venomously, "was always jealous of him. When Connor arrived, Kevin was already a problem. Eight years old and he started rebelling, fighting us, causing trouble. Not Connor though. We told you, Detective. Connor was a model son. Did everything he was supposed to. Never put a toe out of line."

Rick placed a hand on Kate's arm to still her movement. They were both thinking the same thing, which went something along the lines of 'how could people like this possibly have raised a man that turned out like that'. The image of the Kevin they knew simply wasn't reconcilable with the pair sitting before them.

"Do you..." Kate swallowed and took a breath. The words tasted like tar in her mouth. "Do you have any reason to believe Kevin had motivation to kill Connor?" She carefully avoided the shocked look Rick gave her upon hearing the question. It wasn't like she wanted to ask it, she loved Kevin just like Rick and Javier did, and she trusted him. Nowhere in her, not for one second, did Kate believe that he'd purposefully hurt someone. But she was a cop, a detective, and these were the questions she had to ask.

Quinlan and Brady seemed to mull over the question for a moment before Brady looked up.

"The company."

"What?" That didn't make any sense.

"Our company, detective, do keep up," sneered Brady, tone patronizing. "Connor, he was first in line to inherit everything. Keelan has her life squared away, she's inconsequential, but Connor. We set him up in every way we could. From the moment we knew Kevin was a mistake, a screw up, the focus went to Connor. Wouldn't you resent someone for that, Miss Beckett? If you had a chance like that, the opportunity to be rich and powerful, the head of an empire, and you were so much of a fuck up that you lost that to someone? You'd hate them, wouldn't you. Kevin's life could have been worth something, he could have been worth something, but Connor got everything he should've had instead. Sounds like motive to me."

Kate couldn't sit there and listen to Brady talk about Kevin like that any longer. "Mr. Ryan, I understand that this is a hard time for you and your wife, but if you continue to speak about a New York police officer in this fashion I'm going to have to ask you to leave. And if you won't leave, I will make you. Your son has helped a lot of people, done a lot of good, and I can assure you he is worth just as much as a cop as he would've been as a CEO." It was hard to keep the venom from her tone, the fury from her voice, and some of it assuredly slipped out. She wasn't really trying that hard to disguise it by this point, though.

"We've been over this. I have one son, and he is dead. And frankly, I don't think there is anything else I can possibly tell you that would help. My wife, my daughter, and I are going home." Brady stood, pulling a blank faced, markedly calm, impassive Quinlan with him. "Call us when you've stopped defending Kevin and arrested him for murder."

….

The clock ticked on the wall. Javier sat in a chair facing Kevin's sister. Keelan Ryan stared at him with one eyebrow quirked up, as if to say 'well? I'm waiting'. It was an expression that he had seen many times before, when he was taking a while to get to the point of a sentence. It was unnerving, seeing a look so common from Kevin, a look distorted from one of fond exasperation to mocking expectation, on this cold woman's marble features. She looked like her mother.

She looked like Kevin.

Javier shifted and swallowed, wondering if Kate and Rick, interviewing the other two in the next room over, felt this weird. It felt like he was going behind his partner's back, interfering against his wishes in a past he'd kept hidden for a reason. Keelan tapped her fingers on the arm of her chair, tilting her head to the side in a way so like Kevin that Javier had to shake himself a bit to dispel the uneasy deja vu that had settled over him.

"Did you bring me in here so you could ask me questions about Connie or was it just to stare at me?" she asked lazily.

"Tell me about Connor." Javier's words were short and clipped. It was taking every ounce of restraint he had not to escort her off the premises immediately.

"Perfect."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you said to tell you about Connor. And that's all anybody ever had to say about him. My parents, people at the company, people my parents buttered up. Perfect perfect perfect. Connie in a word. He smiled big for the camera, that gorgeous fiancée of his hanging off his arm. Pretty boy with a pretty grin. Looked good in a suit. Most importantly though, he was the good son they always wanted. I mean I was a girl, so I was no good. Can't have a woman heading a company like Ryan Global. Then there was Kevin, and, well, he was the opposite of what a Ryan man should be. Disappointment to us all, is what dad says. So he was out. And then they had Connor, and suddenly their first two misses were disregarded because they had a hit. He was so good at everything he ever did..."

One thing had stuck out from Keelan's little speech about her brother, one bit of information that might provide the answer they were looking for.

"You said he had a fiancée?"

"Oh yeah," Keelan said, staring dismissively down at her french manicured fingernails. The tips were, instead of white, a very light, icy blue, much like her eyes. "Riley. Riley Macke. Tell you the one thing he could never get right, though. Boy couldn't keep his fly zipped."

"He was cheating on her?" asked Javier, hopes rising that this might finally be the break they needed, the turn that would prove Kevin had nothing to do with this.

The woman snorted. "I couldn't name one girl he was ever with that he didn't cheat on. It was like he couldn't help it. Faithfulness just wasn't his style or whatever."

"Do you happen to know who it was he was seeing on the side, and where we could find her?"

"Probably a secretary at the company. It's always a secretary. See, they can't say anything or their lives are ruined. You just don't disgrace a Ryan." Keelan stopped, smirking. "Well. Except for Kevin, and it seems he's managed to do that all on his own." She leant one arm on the arm of her chair, propping her chin on it, expression one of fascination. "So, speaking of, you two are close, huh? Saw how you stepped in when dad was at his old game again. Partners. I'd bet you're just the best of friends, right?"

"Where can I find Miss Macke?" By this point Javier was past disguising the disgust in his voice.

"Bet you don't know everything, though. Bet he never told you about us. About what happened."

"You can either tell me where I can find Connor's fiancée right now or you can get the hell out of my precinct. I don't know what the hell kind of game you think you're playing, but I am trying my best, despite you and your family doing everything you can to hurt my partner, to solve your brother's murder. Tell me what I need to know or get out of the damn building."

"Touchy touchy," Keelan snickered, tracing a finger around in circles on the chair arm. "A hot head. I like it. As for Riley, you can probably find the airhead where you usually can. Country club."

As Javier made to speak again, Keelan raised her hands in an 'I surrender' gesture.

"Relax, cop boy. There's my cue." Right on time, Brady wrenched open the door, barking 'Keelan we're leaving' before slamming it shut. Keelan got up to follow him, waggling her fingers in a faux goodbye wave. Before she left, though, she stopped at the doorway, turning around with a hint of a smile on her face.

"You're wasting your time with Riley and his side dish, detective. If my brother was murdered, there's no question. It was Kevin that did it."


End file.
